83rd Academy Awards Shorts!

Oscar Week kicked off with “Shorts!,” featuring screenings of all the Oscar-nominated films in the Animated and Live Action Short Film categories, plus an onstage discussion with the filmmakers. This popular event began in 1997 and has sold out every year since then. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences screened of all 10 of the Oscar-nominated animated and live-action short films on Tuesday, February 22, 2010 at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Pictured here prior to the screenings the directors of the animated shorts (left to right): Geefwee Boedoe, “Let’s Pollute,” Bastien Dubois, “Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage,” Shaun Tan, “The Lost Thing,” Teddy Newton, “Day and Night,” Max Lang and Jakob Schuh, “The Gruffalo.

THE 2010 NOMINEES ARE:

Short Film (Animated)

• “Day & Night” – Teddy Newton
• “The Gruffalo” – Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
• “Let’s Pollute” – Geefwee Boedoe
• “The Lost Thing” – Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
• “Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” – Bastien Dubois

Short Film (Live Action)

• “The Confession” – Tanel Toom
• “The Crush” – Michael Creagh
• “God of Love” – Luke Matheny
• “Na Wewe” – Ivan Goldschmidt
• “Wish 143” – Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

Shorts are doing great in theaters and just went up on iTunes and VOD. They added the documentary shorts to the theatrical release. Branagh quoted Chekhov and Shakespeare among others and did an impression of John Gielgud. He was the best host in years, he was very witty and asked fanstastic questions from the point of view of a former nominee in that category plus he kept it moving. Branagh was introduced with a long intro listing every achievement in his career and he was compared to Orson Welles. He was impeccably prepared and even wore a sweater, blazer and glasses! He’s one of 8 who have been nominated for actor, director and screenplay. THOR was mentioned more than once.

The Live Action nominees were pretty dark and intense with a lot of children in peril or terrorizing someone. It’s too hard to pick a winner but I’d go with God of Love, a student thesis film and the only comedy or Wish 143, which has that one powerful scene that wins Oscars.

The Animated nominees include the 3D Day & Night from Pixar which played before Toy Story 3. John Lasseter took a special interest in the project and kept it out of the committee process so it could be more abstract and unique.

The Gruffalo, based on the book, featured a fantastic voice cast that includes nominee Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Wilkinson, John Hurt and Robbie Coltrane. The mouse character is hilarious.

Our favorite is The Lost Thing for it’s blend of strange, fantastic CGI visuals and heart-tugging story.

Pictured here prior to the screenings the directors of the animated shorts (left to right): Geefwee Boedoe, “Let’s Pollute,” Bastien Dubois, “Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage,” Shaun Tan, “The Lost Thing,” Oscar-nominated actor/writer/director Kenneth Branagh, Teddy Newton, “Day and Night,” Max Lang and Jakob Schuh, “The Gruffalo.”